to a late comer who had seated himself at a small table across
the narrow aisle from them. "My wife's a great disappointment to me--no
sport--never was, never will be. 'Morra," addressing himself to the
stranger exclusively, "goin' back to hear the prairie dogs
chatter--goin' listen to the sagebrush tick--back one thousan' miles
from an oyster--"

"Jap!" Mrs. Toomey interrupted desperately, "we must be going.
Everyone's leaving."

"We'll be closing shortly," the waiter hinted.

Toomey blinked at the check he placed before him.

"Can't see whether tha's twenty dollars, or two hundred dollars or two
thousand dollars."

The waiter murmured the amount, but not so softly but that Mrs. Toomey
paled when she heard it. He had not enough to pay it, she was sure of
it, for while he had brought from the room an amount that would have
been ample for any ordinary theater supper, wine had not been in his
calculations.

Mrs. Toomey looked on anxiously while he produced the contents of his
pocket.

"Sorry, sir, but it isn't enough," said the waiter, after counting the
notes he tossed upon the plate.

Toomey found the discovery amusing.

"You s'prise me," he chuckled.

"Sorry, sir, but--" the waiter persisted.

With a swift transition of mood Toomey demanded haughtily:

"Gue'sh you don' know who I am?"

"No, sir."

Toomey tapped the lapel of his jacket impressively with his forefinger.

"I'm Jasper Toomey of Prouty, Wyoming."

The waiter received the information without flinching.

"Call up the Blackstone and they'll tell you I'll be in to-morra an'
shettle." He wafted the waiter away grandly, that person shrugging a
dubious shoulder as he vanished. "They'll tell 'im the f'ancial standin'
of Jasper Toomey--shirtingly."

The waiter returned almost immediately.

"The hotel knows you only as a guest, sir."

"Thish is insult--d'lib'rate insult." Mr. Toomey rose to his feet and
stood unsteadily. "Send manager to me immedially--immedially!"

"He's busy, sir," replied the waiter with a touch of impatience, "but he
said you'd have to settle before leaving."

Mrs. Toomey, crimson with mortification and panic-stricken as visions of
a patrol wagon and station house rose before her, interrupted when
Toomey would have continued to argue.

"Jap, stay here while I go to the hotel--I can take a taxi and be back
in a few minutes."

Toomey refused indignantly. He declared that not only would this be a
reflection upon his